Alita~Battle Angel by Pat Cadigan

Author:Pat Cadigan [Cadigan, Pat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B077WYMTKH
Publisher: Titan Books
Published: 2018-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The enormous Factory doors rumbled open the same way they had the first time Alita had come here with Ido. That night, he’d been mad at her. He’d made her stay outside while he went in, despite the fact that if it hadn’t been for her, he wouldn’t have been able to collect any bounties. In fact, if it hadn’t been for her, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything—he’d have been a splattered mess on the street with three homicidal cyborgs picking over his bones. With one of them making earrings out of his eyeballs.

But did he appreciate it? Hell, no! She’d saved his life and he’d showed his gratitude by forcing her to live a lie, to be someone she wasn’t, refusing to let her discover her identity.

Well, tonight she was absolutely furious with him, and she was taking charge of her life—her life. She was calling the shots now, and if Ido tried to make her be his perfect little flower-covered darling, she’d tell him whose rules she lived by: nobody’s.

Alita strode between the gargantuan doors. (If they tried to close on her, she would shatter them with one blow from her open hand.) Her footsteps echoed in the cavernous entry hall; she liked the sound.

Centurians were lined up along the walls on either side of her, and she could sense they were tracking her as she went. Ready to open fire if she did something against the rules. Alita gave them a sidelong glower. You know whose rules I live by? Nobody’s. What are you gonna do about it, you walking junk-piles?

She stared hard at the platform ahead of her. Maybe she’d find out there was a rule against what she wanted to do. Well, too bad—if the Centurians even tried to get in her way, she was going to send them all to walking-junk-pile heaven. Her footsteps were even louder when she reached the platform and stomped up the few steps to the counter. She rested her elbows on it, pretending it wasn’t just a little too high for her to do so easily. A couple of seconds went by. What the hell, she thought, was the night shift asleep on the job? There wasn’t even a switch or a button to press for service, just a trashcan behind the counter.

Abruptly the trashcan spun around, and Alita found herself looking at a weird cartoony cat face. “State your business,” the trashcan ordered her in a voice that was somehow both cartoony and mechanical. The Factory used trashcans for receptionists? Was this place for real?

“I’m here to register as a Hunter-Warrior,” she told it. “Any questions?”

“Name?” asked the trashcan.

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